Upgrading from a P4 HTPC

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wavewerx

Limp Gawd
Joined
Oct 8, 2008
Messages
284
1) What will you be doing with this PC?
HTPC - Maybe some light gaming

2) What's your budget? Are tax and shipping included?
~~500$USD

3) Where do you live?
Columbia, SC

4) What exact parts do you need for that budget? CPU, RAM, case, etc. Please be very specific.
Motherboard, CPU, RAM, PSU

5) If reusing any parts, what parts will you be reusing? Please be especially specific about the power supply. List make and model.
I've got a HTPC Antec Fusion case I'll be re-using and I'll also be able to salvage a DVD-ROM drive out of another machine.

6) Will you be overclocking?
No

7) What size monitor do you have and/or plan to have?
It'll be connected to a 42 - 50in Plasma

8) When do you plan on building/buying the PC?
Within Two Weeks

9) What features do you need in a motherboard? RAID? Firewire? Crossfire or SLI support? etc.
HDMI and Optical out

10) Do you already have a legit and reusable/transferable OS key/license?
I need to buy an OS - Windows 7?

I live in a house with two other buds of mine - no cable TV. We watch Hulu, YouTube HD, and similar for TV and movies, pop in a DVD in the XBox 360, or crankup iTunes. I'm paying for my own power bill now so low power consumption is a plus. The older fake HTPC that I had setup is going to turn into the media server serving the 360 and this new HTPC. Eventually I'll rip DVDs to the media server as well...

Regarding the gaming - if at all, it'll be some Half Life / Counter Strike 1.6, Old Blizzard games + Star Craft II if possible. and Only for the cool / WOW! factor. If I can't do it with onboard video, then don't worry about it.
 
Where in Columbia are you? I lived there for 4 year while going to USC and I still am there about every other weekend visiting my girlfriend at Columbia College if I can't get her to come to Charleston.

Mobo - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131318
CPU - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103688
RAM - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231098
PSU - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817371005
OS - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16832116752 or get this deal if you or your friends go to USC or Midlands Tech and have a .edu email address - http://www.hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1452528

Another option for the CPU is to search ebay and the forums for a be-2300, be-2400, 5050e or 4050e which are 45watt CPUs or wait for the 45watt Regor cpus to come out. Those should get you less power usage and heat.

Also, what about a hard drive? You don't say if you need one or have one.
 
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Good looking out on the Win 7 deal! I can reuse a hard drive or just get a small WD Blue or something. I was looking at that mobo / proc set from another thread so it's good to see it reinforced again.

I'm just finished up my first year at USC and decided to take a break to serious up about school - 1.8gpa. Did the greek thing (SigEp), partied to hard, decided no to go to class, blah blah...I just moved out of my dad's place last month on Fish Hatchery and now I'm in Cayce, walking distance to the Krispy Kreme.

Just got back from Charleston yesterday evening - IOP Connector 10K run. Hung out the rest of the day at the IOP Marina, a good friend of mine's Aunt owns it.

How about yourself?
 
wavewerx said:
Good looking out on the Win 7 deal! I can reuse a hard drive or just get a small WD Blue or something. I was looking at that mobo / proc set from another thread so it's good to see it reinforced again.
Click to expand...

I haven't used that CPU myself but for now it's the best AMD choice in stores. The motherboard is great though, plays everything back without problems including Blu-Rays, my Blu-Rays I encoded, HD TV, etc. Just make sure you use the beta video drivers on the nvidia site or you'll have problems with the image coming back when you change inputs or turn the tv off.

wavewerx said:
I'm just finished up my first year at USC and decided to take a break to serious up about school - 1.8gpa. Did the greek thing (SigEp), partied to hard, decided no to go to class, blah blah...I just moved out of my dad's place last month on Fish Hatchery and now I'm in Cayce, walking distance to the Krispy Kreme.

Just got back from Charleston yesterday evening - IOP Connector 10K run. Hung out the rest of the day at the IOP Marina, a good friend of mine's Aunt owns it.

How about yourself?
Click to expand...

That sounds a lot like my freshman year except I rushed Kappa Sigma but couldn't join because they got their charter revoked. I also had trouble going to class from partying and being too lazy to walk from Bates House. :rolleyes: I ended up with 2.0 that year but got my shit together after that.
 
SC385 said:
I haven't used that CPU myself but for now it's the best AMD choice in stores. The motherboard is great though, plays everything back without problems including Blu-Rays, my Blu-Rays I encoded, HD TV, etc. Just make sure you use the beta video drivers on the nvidia site or you'll have problems with the image coming back when you change inputs or turn the tv off.



That sounds a lot like my freshman year except I rushed Kappa Sigma but couldn't join because they got their charter revoked. I also had trouble going to class from partying and being too lazy to walk from Bates House. :rolleyes: I ended up with 2.0 that year but got my shit together after that.
Click to expand...

Bates? How about the Roost! haha

I'll let you know how the build goes with pics and all that stuff that we love here at [H]
 
Woot for a fellow Columbian, So much better than my hometown of florence. blah.
 
SC385 said:
32bit. 64bit is a pain in the ass on HTPCs.
Click to expand...

Thanks SC385... In doing research for my future plasma, I just thought of something that looks like it hasn't been addressed in the forums....

Obviously we all want the best picture avaliable, but is there going to be a major difference in picture between a 720p and 1080p set in regards to the Operating System? Am I going to have a tougher time with my resolutions at 720 vs 1080? or Quick suggestions on a good looking plasma no more than 1200$USD?
 
Just a small update: Parts came in today from Newegg. Looking forward to the build this weekend!
 
Build went together fine. I didn't take pictures (at 4:00AM) because it slipped my mind but I'll post up some of the entertainment center and computer guts later.

I've got two questions though: I want to start a lossless backup of all my music as well as keep lossy files for media players and streaming. Before I would just tell iTunes to organize my music and rip it 320kbps into My Docs/My Music and play it from iTunes, sharing that computer across the network. Now I want to include my Xbox360. I also understand that iTunes is nogo on WHS... What's the best way to do this? Should I keep both the lossless and lossy in the "Music" directory?

Also, What file formats do I rip my movies in for XBox360 and Win 7 MCE playback? DVD Extras can be left out - we can go hunting for them if we really want the deleted scenes but I would like to keep the digital audio tracks, specifically because we'll be ripping more music and concert dvds more so than movies - we're a house full of musicians.

Thanks for all the help thus far
 
Bump - mainly looking for an answer to the file format question for the XBox360.

Sorry guys - no work at my desk today has me at [H] all day
 
lots of locals in this thread!
I was born and raised in Charleston :D

I'm in the north area (goose creek/summerville)
 
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